NH College Roundup: UNH skaters jump to No. 4 in country

March 04. 2013 9:26PMA strong weekend against UMass Amherst led to an impressive showing for the University of New Hampshire men's ice hockey team in the weekly polls this week.

The Wildcats are ranked fourth in both the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine and USCHO.com Division I Men's Hockey Poll. Both polls are consistent in their top three team selections. Quinnipiac (24-5-5) is the top team in the country followed by Minnesota (22-7-5), Miami University (22-9-5) and UNH at 18-8-6. Both polls also have North Dakota (18-9-7) at No. 5 followed by defending national champion Boston College (19-10-3) and current Hockey East leader UMass Lowell (21-9-2) at No. 7 overall. Dartmouth College does not appear in either poll.

Honors

Plymouth State: Hockey goalie Jack Astedt was named to the MASCAC weekly honor roll after leading the regular-season champion Panthers in last week's playoffs. Astedt leads the MASCAC in goals against average (2.12), save percentage (.931) and winning percentage (.738, 15-5-1).

He's ninth in the national Division III statistics in save percentage, 14th in winning percentage and 15th in goals against average.

St. Anselm: Basketball player Chris Santo was selected as the Northeast-10 player of the week. Santo averaged 21.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game last week.

Southern New Hampshire University: Junior righthander Junior Mendez of the baseball team was named the Northeast-10 conference pitcher of the week. Mendez recorded a no-hitter in a 2-0 victory over the University of the Sciences Sunday.

UNH: Sophomore goaltender Casey DeSmith of Rochester and senior forward John Henrion were named Hockey East defensive player of the week and co-player of the week, respectively.

Women's America East Basketball Tournament

University of Maine: The women's basketball team will not participate in the tournament. The announcement comes in the aftermath of the Feb. 26 bus accident on Interstate 95 near Georgetown, Mass., in which the bus driver was injured and a Maine player sustained a broken hand. Maine's opponent, No. 1 seed Albany advances to the semifinals Sunday at 1 p.m.

Maine's withdrawal from the tournament means the game between No. 4 seed Stony Brook and No. 5 seed New Hampshire will now be played Friday at 6 p.m. at the SEFCU Arena in Albany, N.Y. The original time was 8 p.m.

Women's lacrosse

Springfield College 11, Keene State 6: In Keene, Kaitlin Nolan scored two goals and Nicole Curry of Hampstead finished with a goal and two assists for the Owls.

Baseball

SNHU 11, Lynn University 4: In Boca Raton, Fla., Brendan O'Brien and Anthony Aceto each knocked in two runs for the 7-0 Penmen, ranked first in the latest NCBWA East Region poll.